The Life of the Raspberry Pi may not be an engrossing movie but it certainly has become an attractive, enthralling Queen of its own market. The Raspberry Pi is a little, incredibly inexpensive computer, about the size of a credit card, and it illustrates perfectly the miracle and science of electronic miniaturization. Kids, hobbyists, adults and DIYers can place a ton of computing power in their own hands and directly experience the control of bits and bytes moving large, fun and practical projects, all built from Raspberry Pi kits.
Origin and Production
The small computer was an answer to a concern that a group of computer scientists had at the University of Cambridge around 2006. They were seeing young people come into computer science with minimum programming skills or the desire to tinker and experiment with bits and bytes. A while ago, such experimentation was the essence of computing that propelled curiosity, learning and growth during the early days of desktops. Many curiosities were limited to graphics-driven worlds of Web design or Microsoft Word and Excel expert modules.
The scientists basically had one idea, to go back to the first home computer models that you could actually program to build computing projects. After several models and with well-focussed intent, they were successful and by 2011, saw their remarkable model Raspberry Pi move into full production in Taiwan and China. By September 2012, with Raspberry Pi kits selling for inexpensive prices, production of the units moved to a Sony factory in Pencoed, Wales, producing 40,000 of the bare PC board electronics weekly to meet increased Western demand.
The Screws and Components
The driver part of Raspberry Pi kits comprises another Cambridge product, a 700 MHz processor based on chip models from the world-renowned Arm chip developers in Cambridge. Arm SOC designs drive a large number of the world’s smartphones, tablets and mobile devices. The Raspberry Pi’s ARM chip is accompanied by a low-power VideoCore graphics chip that can be directly fed into an HDMI monitor.
The small unit is powered by a 5 volts USB port and a 1 GB SD card slot for storing the Linux operating system. The Pi comes in two models, A and B; the first with 256 MB RAM and the second with 512 MB.
Driver for Innovation, Education and Fun
The Raspberry Pi has an essential educational thrust – it shows kids the nuts and bolts of simple programming. Not only can they program results using the Python language, other programming languages are being integrated under the guidance of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Recent demonstrations and competitions have highlighted innovative projects that included jukeboxes, home lights automation, basic computers, an animated picture frame and a beat machine using actual vegetable beets.
Kids can now enjoy flavors of the creative Minecraft construction game through their Raspberry Pi kits. Indeed, hacking Minecraft or expanding the small PC board with more accessories by attaching a USB hub can develop a great skill set. Programming becomes easy as Pi.